New York’s Post-Budget Legislative Session Ends with Smoky Skies and No Major Climate Action
***FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE***: June 9, 2023
Contact: Marie Scarles, marie@nyrenews.org, (646) 389-8429
Web: @NYRenews | www.nyrenews.org
NEW YORK STATE – At the close of New York’s legislative session, with hundreds of climate change-driven wildfires burning in every province across Canada and smoke-filled, toxic air blanketing New York State, the NY Renews coalition, representing over 360 organizations statewide, released the following statement:
As record-high levels of toxic particulates from the hundreds of wildfires in Canada infiltrate the lungs and blood of millions of people across the east coast, New York’s State Legislature should take heed: this is the daily reality of billions of people worldwide who are forced to breathe in toxic air, including hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers living in frontline communities shadowed by fossil fuel power plants and other polluting industries.
Weather conditions like these are exacerbated by the climate crisis, which increases pollution that threatens our health and our lives. Without bold leadership from elected officials, it will only get worse. New York saw the highest pollution levels in the world this week—the same week that key Climate, Jobs, and Justice legislation, including the NY HEAT Act, the Climate Superfund Act, and the Just Energy Transition Act passed the Senate, but stalled in the Assembly, and while the Governor stayed silent.
As state leaders, you are obligated to represent the best interests of the people you serve. When it comes to climate and environmental justice, you are responsible for delivering on the mandates of New York’s landmark climate law: moving New York toward 100 percent zero-emission electricity by 2040 and more while directing benefits to frontline communities statewide—particularly Black, brown, Indigenous, and working-class communities—for climate crisis mitigation and resiliency, clean-energy infrastructure and planning, and energy bill relief. Extreme weather events like these are only becoming more frequent and deadly. The more you delay, the more people die.
Our coalition, and our movement, will keep fighting, advocating, and organizing around the vibrant future we deserve, with good green jobs that don’t pollute our communities, resilient infrastructure, and protections from extreme weather. This year we defended the Climate Act from fossil-fuel attacks, passed much of the Build Public Renewables Act and the All-Electric Buildings Act, and saw a step forward in a multi-year effort to secure a designated state fund for climate: the Climate Action Fund.
We will continue to work on making sure these laws—and the state’s future emissions-cap program—benefit New Yorkers, alleviate environmental injustice, and create a just, healthy, and equitable New York State.
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NY Renews is a coalition of more than 360 environmental justice, community, faith, labor, and multi-issue organizations fighting for a just climate future in New York State. We are the force behind the nation's most aggressive climate law, the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act (2019). The Climate, Jobs, and Justice Package is the next step in our fight for a just energy transition in New York.